Designing homes and landscapes for the summer season is a fun and relatively effortless project. When flowers are in bloom, trees are in leaf, and windows and doors can be open to the breeze, how can you possibly go wrong?

Winter, however, is an inevitability we often fail to anticipate. By mid-December we look out on leafless shrubs, mud, and dirty snow. The sunlight is weak and there’s precious little daylight to begin with. By mid-February, cabin fever can set in and even the cheeriest Southwesterners can become a little S.A.D.

How, then, can we maximize the uplifting potential of sunlight and landscape when we are stuck indoors most of the time? It’s not as simple as just bringing the outside in: somehow we have to let in sun, color, architectural detail, and attractive landscape elements while screening out cold, darkness, and desolation.

This is a tough challenge, since few homeowners and designers are really good at both architecture and landscape. The ideal architect knows his plants and trees and will try to present the landscaper with a favorable set of conditions for her work. But it’s far more common for the landscaper to be called in after the house is finished, only to be confronted with a more difficult set of circumstances.

If, however, all parties adhere to green-building basics and pay attention to what Mother Nature says, there’s a much better chance of everyone remaining on the same page. Consider, for example, energy efficiency and solar gain, both of which tell us to take advantage of the winter sun bathing the south side of a house while guarding against excessive heat loss from the north side. The result might well be larger windows and patio doors on the south, as well as architectural elements that remain attractive and useful all winter long, such as fireplaces, bancos, seating areas, and even water features. This is the zone where snow melts the fastest and solar rays heat up brick, stone, and plaster in defiance of wintertime conditions. The payoff is big when you can utilize every square foot of light and warmth!

Something entirely different may be happening on the north side of the house. Here, the sun might not penetrate for several months, the soil may freeze one or two feet down, and spending time outdoors is near-impossible. Yet as inhospitable as this north-side microclimate is, it nevertheless offers a soothing wintertime still-life, one where the sight of stone or twigs emerging through crystalline snow can offer a wonderful Zen-like quality not found on the busier, warmer south side.

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